Saturday, 18 October 2014

Bookish Musings - E-Readers vs Physical Books

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Stacie is talking about the comparison between E-readers and Physical Books and why she loves her E-reader so much.

Firstly, thank you to Amanda for given me the idea to do this discussion, secondly I can't believe it's took someone suggesting it to do it because I'm constantly going on about how much I love the Kindle. The one thing about me is, I can almost always find an opinion on any subject, but it's the coming up with the topics that I find challenging, specially ones that haven't been over done. I know that's a bit rich, considering the topic I'm going to talk about had probably been done hundreds of times since e-readers became big, but for someone like me who will read the majority on the Kindle, it's something I can talk in detail about.

Before I start talking/ranting/raving I should probably tell you that when I was around 13 my dad told me about e-readers, how sooner or later they were going to make a thing similar to the ipod but you could read (his words haha), and I remember telling him that I would never get on with them because I loved physical books too much and was pretty set in never owning one. Now fast forward to the age of 21, my birthdays coming up and my other half is thinking of what to get. He's asked me countless time if I wanted a tablet or a kindle, I told him I didn't want a tablet because I had a laptop and I didn't want a kindle for the same reason I gave my dad. He got me one anyway and at first I was happy because it's a shiny new toy but it hardly got used for around a year.

Then I saw how convenient they were, not only could I read on my Kindle app on my phone while settling my little girl off, but I could take it anywhere with me, if I was stuck in traffic or waiting for a bug longer than I thought than no problem, I could read on my phone if I forgot my kindle. Did I miss physical books? of course I did. But being able to read with one hand, the fact that it didn't take up a lot of space and the cheapness of the books was a big deal to me. I don't have a lot of space in my flat for my books (I only recently got a book case and 90% of my books are still at my mums) I never had more than one hand free to read while my daughter was younger and unfortunately I don't have a lot of money to be buying books so the fact that you can not only buy cheap books but can also get free ones really appealed to me.

Being a young mum, money was always a problem for me. In the first year of my daughter being alive, I read around 10 books and maybe bought 6, 3 of which only cost me £5 thanks to The Works. But in the past 6 months with the Kindle I've bought 25 books and only spent £37.97. That works out at around £1.70 per book and if I bought them in paperback form at an average of between £5 and £6 I would have spent anywhere between £125 and £150. Now I don't know about you but around £87- £112 saving is something I can live with.

Now recently I've found myself getting back into the swing of buying paperbacks/hardbacks, but I would be lying if I told you I paid full price for them. I buy most of my physical books in charity shops now because like already stated, I just don't have the money for all the books I want to get. I have to get uniform for my daughter, I have bills, just basic living expenses and I'm not saying that no one else does, but I'm so thankful for the kindle because I still get the books but for a cut of the price. I wish that I had the money for physical books because I don't like not having the pretty cover or the smell of the books or just the feel of the pages between my fingers (I'm not weird..) but sadly this works for me.

I think my most favourite thing about the Kindle is how when a book in a series is coming out they will almost always lower the price of the first book to something ridiculous. Take Throne of Glass for example, with the release of Heir of Fire, Throne of Glass was (and might still be) only 51p for the Kindle. Can you believe that? I have already read and loved the book but I didn't own it, and at that price I didn't feel bad getting a book I had already read. I just think it's a lovely thing they do. Perhaps my only grievance with the Kindle is that not every book I want to read is available, a book might come out in physical but not be ready as an ebook for a few weeks or longer, some books have been out for around a year but still not come out on the kindle so I have to wait either way, and after getting books for cheap for so long, I feel aggrieved at buying them full price (I would just like to point out that there is a plethora of books I wish I had the money to pay full price for a nice new paperback or hardback, but because I haven't got the money I have to wait for it to become available as I always think the full price money could get me a little toy for my daughter, no matter how much I love reading or how much books mean to me, my daughters happiness comes first and though I'm not so hard up that I cant get a physical book or two a week, her smile is better than a new addition to my bookcase)

In short, a Kindle/e-Reader is worth having, and if you don't want to spend the money on it that that's fine, because they offer you the chance to just downloaded the app to your computer/phone/ipad/tablet so you don't actually have to have the e-Reader device to save money. It's pretty much a no-brainer, specially with the books you want to read but aren't sure about spending the full amount can be a bit of a let down if the book isn't as good as you hoped, so why not get it cheaper as an ebook and then buy a physical copy in the future? Just a suggestion ;)

3 comments:

I like my sony e-reader a great deal as well, mostly when I find free ebooks, for e-arcs, and for travelling! I can totally see why you like the kindle, it is good money wise since ebooks are a good deal cheaper than regular books. I don't have a lot of money either so I only sometimes buy physical books and its usually when they are on sale. I use the library a LOT!

Yes yes yes! There is so much I agree with this post and past me around a year ago would have scoffed you! Pfft, digital books, ha, but no, now I'm hooked. ARCs would be easier to read on the kindle, kindle books are happening now on laptop, it's all systems go and I'm so pleased. You really helped convince me a Kindle was a good idea and now I'll be getting one, it's so exciting! I don't know which one to get though, but I will get one. This is a great post, right on the head of the subject. Well done! You should do more of these ;)

I am a total physical book person. I use my Kindle but only really for eARCs. It may sound strange but I struggle more reading on the kindle and feel it affects my enjoyment of the book. Especially with badly formatted eARCs because it makes reading a chore. I will be really poor next year though, so I will probably be buying more books on Kindle. I even treated myself to a Paperwhite for my birthday and I do love it. I just prefer physical books. Great discussion :)